


Untitled writing exercise #1

by spudgun



Category: NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-07-05
Updated: 2004-07-05
Packaged: 2018-05-03 02:51:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5273735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spudgun/pseuds/spudgun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Relationships are never simple, even when you're not famous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled writing exercise #1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had a little scene floating about in my head which wouldn't leave me alone. The following words have nothing to do with that scene, except for the party motif (and the cactus). I just wanted to see what would happen if I forced myself to sit down and write linearly for a few hours instead of jotting down scenes at random and forgetting how they were supposed to join up (so, not edited either, because that's kind of the point). Call it original fic with JuC pastede on, yay (because: pretty! and the term AU makes me twitch violently on every other Monday ::twitches::). It just started and stopped where it felt like it, and I don't think it wanted to make sense, so there ya go.
> 
> Disclaimer: I know less than nothing about fashion. [/my issues]
> 
> Originally publicly posted [here](http://www.blue-moon-fic.livejournal.com/1272.html).

**Where we come in.**

They meet at a party: Justin's party, in fact. It's well underway and Justin has a pleasant buzz going when the intercom hums for his attention. He ignores it and lets someone else get it while he puts the moves on a friend of a friend who he's been assured he'll 'just love'.

He does.

***

They meet at a party at Joey's. Joey's a laid back guy and a good friend, and he knows that Justin needs an excuse to get drunk enough to cry about Britney and the fucking choreographer she ran off with without feeling like a total girl. Joey invites enough of his theatre friends that Justin can pretend that the whole evening hasn't been organised just for his benefit. He gets so wasted he passes out in the hallway for a bit, and only vaguely remembers Joey taking his feet and a pair of muscular arms hooked under his to carry him up to the guest room. He feels like crap the next morning, and Joey makes him pay for the stair carpet to be cleaned.

***

They meet at a party at Joey's friend Lance's place. Lance seems like a nice guy, and Justin trusts Joey enough that if he says Justin needs to get out and meet someone new, he'll believe it. He's decided that he's not getting too drunk tonight: he's not going to let Britney fuck him over any more than she already did when she was with him. He's nursing a beer and mingling when Joey appears at his side, grabs his arm, and says, with a grin, "got someone you should meet here, J." He lets himself be dragged away. Joey's friend is a tallish, thinish, vaguely familiar looking guy with wide, blue-grey eyes. He grins as he shakes Justin's hand with a strong, sure grip. Joey's grinning too. The guy really does look familiar. Justin sighs. "Okay, what did I do?" 

Joey's friend's grin grows wider. He really does have a nice smile. "Joey, man, time to pay up," he drawls, in a light tenor. He turns to Justin. "I bet Joey you wouldn't remember throwing up on me. I'm JC. Nice to meet you again." Justin covers his face with his hands as Joey grumbles and hands JC ten bucks. 

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. Joey's party, yeah?" JC nods. "I was kinda wasted." He's so embarrassed.

"No shit," JC says, laughing. "Hey, don't worry about it. We've all been there."

"Fuck, Joey! You tell everyone my personal shit?" he says, punching Joey on the arm, only semi-playfully.

Joey rubs his arm and looks unrepentant. "Hey, I had to get someone to help me put you to bed, and I thought he deserved to know exactly why some punk had ruined his Armani. He doesn't forgive that shit easy."

"Man, this just gets better and better," Justin moans. 

JC smiles again, his eyes practically vanishing. "Hey, I'm cool. What say you make it up to me? You free tomorrow night?"

Justin looks at Joey, who just grins back at him. Fucker. He watches the flex of strong muscles in JC's forearm as he runs his hand through his curls, waiting for an answer. He doesn't think he's misinterpreted the invitation.

"OK," he says. "I think I'd like that."

JC smiles. "Just don't puke on me this time, dude," he says. "I'm gonna be wearing Boss."

***

JC sings in theatre, sometimes; other times he works the club circuit like Justin, but their styles are different enough that they don't compete. His schedule sometimes gels with Justin's, when they spend their free time shooting hoops and taking in art galleries, and going out dancing at night. Other times they work different nights, and listen to each other in smoky jazz bars and under-lit clubs where people move together to rhythm and blues. Justin loves JC best on the dance floor, because when they dance together, it's like no-one else in the world exists. 

JC moves in with Justin four months to the day after they talked for the first time. He brings a fancy coffee maker, more towels and bed linen than can be carried in one car journey, and a potted cactus who is formally introduced to Justin as Barbara. JC is a neat freak and gets pissy whenever Justin leaves his clothes lying around or doesn't put his glass on a coaster. Justin hates the way JC spends all his money on expensive clothes, then complains about having nothing to wear and steals Justin's favourite blue shirt every time they go out together. JC writes Justin songs about love which he never sings for anyone else. Justin wakes up ten minutes earlier than he needs to every day just to watch the lean lines of JC's back in his bed, and thinks he's never been happier.

***

They break up at a party. JC's got a gig, but Joey's still Justin's closest friend and it's not like they're joined at the hip. Justin tells JC he loves him, and JC quickly kisses him goodbye before he leaves for the club. Justin's already got a pleasant buzz going when he hears a familiar voice and turns to see Britney across the room. It's the first time he's seen her in the two years since she left him, but he's kept track enough to know that she and Wade didn't work out. She's holding a cigarette and looks thinner, less blonde and more tired than he remembers. He's feeling mellow enough and smug enough that he decides to go over and talk to her. They chat for a while, and drink some more beers, and he remembers why he fell in love with her. They're making out in the hallway when JC shows up, his gig cancelled. They have a screaming fight in Joey's hallway as other partygoers try to slip past them and get to the door. JC calls him a selfish bastard and a slut. Justin calls JC an uptight, anally retentive self-obsessed fucker, and JC leaves. Britney's nowhere to be seen afterwards, and, despite the fact that the party is most definitely over, Justin refuses to go. Joey doesn't stop him as he gets so drunk that he eventually passes out. When he wakes up in the morning, he's still on Joey's couch. No-one helped Joey put him to bed this time. 

By the time he gets home, he's run through about a million explanations and apologies in his head, but in the end it doesn't matter, because JC's gone.

***

A couple of months after he finds out that JC didn't stop running 'till he got to LA, Justin hooks up with a guy called Chris. He has a mohican, two dogs, and gives off more energy than a small nuclear power station. He doesn't care about coasters, and even though he works for a fashion label, he doesn't like to take his work home with him and wears the first non-smelly thing he can find on the floor whenever they go out together. Justin likes Chris's energy and his sense of humour, though he's not so fond of his insane dogs. Chris tells Justin he only hangs around him for his PS2, and only whispers that he loves him at night when he thinks Justin's asleep. Chris tells Justin he's a bitch in the mornings, because Justin refuses to wake up even when he's going to be late to his day job at the café 'round the corner.

***

Justin and Chris have a party at Justin's to celebrate their two-month anniversary. The intercom buzzes at around 11pm, but Chris assumes Justin'll get it, and Justin's in the bedroom, watering Barbara, and doesn't hear it.

***

Justin finds out JC's back in San Fran through Joey, who has managed to stay friends with both of them. Justin tells Joey that he doesn't care, and that even if he did, which he doesn't, JC was the one who threw away two years without giving Justin a chance to explain, and it's up to him to make the first move, not that Justin would talk to him if he did. Joey nods at the appropriate moments, doesn't mention Britney, and keeps the vodka coming all evening.

Justin doesn't tell Chris that JC's back, because it's not important, and because Chris doesn't know who JC is.

***

They meet at a party that one of Chris's DJ friends is throwing. Chris is off somewhere shooting the shit with his clothing business buddies. Justin's chatting to some people he vaguely knows from the club scene, trying to make himself heard over the music, and when he turns to try and locate the bar, JC is just - there. In front of him. 

JC holds out a bottle. "You looked thirsty," he says. It's the first thing he's said to Justin since the night they broke up. He won't meet Justin's eyes.

Justin automatically takes the bottle, which is slippery with condensation. "You're wearing my shirt," he says, helplessly. JC is still beautiful. He doesn't know why that surprises him so much. He thinks about Chris; Chris, who buys him flowers with jokes on the cards, who gets him concert tickets and tells him to go with his cool friends, Chris, who says 'I love you' with all and everything he is. Justin has never said it back. 

He puts down his drink, then reaches out and touches a cool fingertip to JC's jaw. JC looks up, leaning into his touch. Justin's pretty sure he doesn't realise he's even doing it.

Justin takes a deep breath. "Dance with me?" he asks, and JC's smile is everything.

***

**Where we leave.**

**Author's Note:**

> I think the original comments pretty much stand (NB: I was actually going to work in the story from Joey's and Chris's points of view, which is why there are some bits that seem a little lost, like the door buzzer - the other parts would have explained them).
> 
> ...given that last line and for the sake of my already battered self-respect, I'm going to assume I wrote this _before_ 'Rock Your Body' was released.


End file.
